Low-frequency or low-salience L2 elements are hard or impossible to learn through mere exposure and require extensive practice to proceduralize form-meaning mappings¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r3 · q1
Currency · newest study 2010 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q1 i? Elements with low frequency or low salience, especially form-meaning mappings, are hard or impossible to acquire through mere communicative exposure, and proceduralizing them takes a very large amount of practice. → Robert DeKeyser 2010

Evidence¶

Robert DeKeyser 2010¶

Robert DeKeyser. (2010). Practice for Second Language Learning: Don't Throw out the Baby with the Bathwater. International Journal of English Studies, 10(1). https://www.um.es/ijes doi:10.6018/ijes/2010/1/114021

q1 · i? · theoretical · r3

Theoretical argument citing SLA research (e.g. DeKeyser 2005; Pica 2009). The article states "Proceduralizing and (at least partially) automatizing such distinctions takes a very large amount of practice", giving examples like Romance aspectual distinctions and plural marking for speakers of Chinese, Japanese or Korean.

"many have argued that a number of elements of any language are hard or impossible to learn through mere exposure and 'practice' in the mere sense of communicating in the target language, because these elements have low frequency or otherwise lack salience"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Automatization of L2 skills requires extensive practice in a consistent environment, not repetition of grammar rules as in traditional exercises — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Comprehensible input alone is insufficient for acquisition of high levels of grammatical proficiency — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• The more often learners meet a word while reading, the more likely they are to learn it incidentally; a meta-analysis of correlational studies finds a moderate correlation — related
• Vocabulary Knowledge Grows Incrementally With Repeated Encounters In Varied Contexts — related
• A 2010 narrative review reports that even very advanced L2 learners read more slowly than native speakers and miss subtle anaphoric interpretation distinctions — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Practice of grammar rules improves only the practiced skill, showing skill specificity of L2 automatization — related
• Automatized L2 morphosyntactic skills develop very gradually over time, following a power function learning curve like other cognitive skills — related
• Classroom experiments test whether instructional procedures that increase the salience and cognitive processing of targeted words in reading texts can support L2 vocabulary acquisition — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Mere exposure to the target language does not automatically lead to native-like communicative competence in adult learners — a narrower finding that bears on this claim